Vray deadline

[gagui]

Hello.

Lately I'm using this node over the deadline submitter but there's one single option I miss and is the posibility to submit Houdini scene.
Is there any chance to include this option in vrayDeadline node?

[bdancer]

Afair, Mode->"Render Job" will submit Houdini scene.

[gagui]

Well, maybe I didn't explain myself well.
What the "submit scene" option in the Deadline submitter itself does is send a temporal "copy" of the scene. This way, if you overwrite your original scene while the farm is rendering, nothing will change.

Now if you submit your scene with the vrayDeadline node and then keep working, making some changes to your scene and overwriting your original file while the farm is processing, all the changes you made to your scene will be processed by the farm because you are using the original file instead of a temporary copy.
Obviously the solution to this is to never overwrite your submitted file and always save it incrementally, but then you could end up with hundreds of versions of the file. And in some cases overwrite your file by error and mess up the render.

[len_xie]

yes I was about ask the same question, the submit scene option is important, because our scene ususally located in local drive, but when deadline workers render the scene, they need to access it in a net work directory, if without that option , we have to do the following:
1.before render with deadline, copy the scene to a network shared folder , which can be accessed by all render workers
2.open the scene in that net work folder, and submit using vray deadline node
if we have that option, what we need to do is following:
1.check the submit houdini scene option, click the submit button. (all the rest is handled by deadline, it will copy the file to a location that can be accessed by all workers, in 3dsmax it can even collect all assets and put them there)

[gagui]

Any progress on this?

[len_xie]

Any progress on this?

why we are the only ones care about this, I am using deadline builtin submission rop node, it works, but sometimes if can not recognize one frame per task option , instead, it put all frames in to one single task , but this behavior comes and goes, I can't find solution either, so try to use vray version , but , you know , it does not send scene file, up to this date.

[tobiasroesli]

I guess they designed the V-Ray Deadline ROP for a .vrscene workflow? That's how I use it.

As Gosho.Genchev mentioned in this earlier thread it was not easy for chaos to implement the Vray Deadline submitter:
https://forums.chaos.com/forum/v-ray...scene-deadline


Cheers

[Morbid Angel]

With the deadline I feel like I am working back in early 2000's . Stuff works but stuff is half done and often issues arise. Indeed you are suppose to render with vray using .vrscene workflow. In this case, if you submit your job and generate the .vrscene then you can modify your houdini scene after the fact without affecting the render. It would only be an issue if you are rendering directly every node has a houdini engine license therefore can just open .hip and render it doing the conversion on the fly.

[tobiasroesli]

Yeah, the good old days when 3D Softwares have cost 10k

Yeah I see the point in rendering with houdini but is it not kind of inneficient? I guess you don't have to export all the data so you can save storage but in the same time when every frame takes 5 minutes to calculate it adds up for a sequence. And Vray is based, respectively is more efficent on/with abc so you have to anyway convert it to Alembic. So it's not such a big step to export .vrscenes. Or am I totally wrong? Or do you make the same workflow with abc exports like you would do for .vrscenes but just render with houdini engine license on the rendernode because you have the license anyway and it's more reliable to go over Houdini?

[Morbid Angel]

There is no software without issues, houdini included. Some of it is vray related as vray is still being actively developing in houdini, others is just houdini being houdini, its logic is different from likes of maya/3ds max. It does allow you for a lot of control much more then any other software, but it also introduces x3 more complexity for that same reason. Is it worth switching to houdini? We've switched from maya, but you need at least one houdini veteran on your team to educate you, who understand the inner logic of houdini. Without such person it would be very difficult and it would take a lot of time.
The .vrscene workflow creates an additional overhead we don't need. Yes you can render with houdini engine licenses if you can afford. With vray scene export you must be mindful of export time. If you are aware of this, then exporting scenes is fast and file size is small i.e using alembics, vdbs etc. Can't use houdini native formats like bgeo, which is a huge pain because you will have to cache everything twice.

I really like houdini's vex builder graph though (material editor). The nodes there are really well developed and performance is really smooth. Vray has come a really long way there too, not like in max/maya of course but give it time. You can do most of the stuff though. Question would be why you would want to switch, what's pushing you away from your current dcc. Is it justifiable. I've been working in houdini for 1+ years and in maya for 20+ years. I can solve any issue in maya under 5 minutes, in houdini it takes me some times hours and if not for the help (from my coworker) I'd give up

[tobiasroesli]

Hi Morbid Angel,

yeah, I didn't meant that Houdini is inefficent, just the workflow within Houdini with Vray and not using .vrscenes. Just to be clear I'm totally with you when it commes to Houdini.

I was 10 years on Maya and I switched or started learning Houdini 3 years ago. It's a pain but I started loving it. I don't have a math brain which is sometimes really frustrating. And I don't have any senior Houdini Artist to teach me
But in the end it's always good to make Houdini your main 3D-Software for a Project because its reliable, flexible and very performante

Thanks for the nice chat, really appreciate it


Cheers
Tobias